Lee "Scratch" Perry

Eccentric, innovative, slightly demented and thoroughly brilliant, venerable Jamaican studio shaman Lee "Scratch" Perry's romance with the groove continues to pop, crackle and blaze with unabated passion. The unhinged auteur has well and truly gone the full reggae route, from his start hustling records for sound-system pioneer Coxsone Dodd to his late '60s Upsetters discs like "Return of Django" to rivaling King Tubby as one of mid-'70s dub's most artistically aggressive studio wizards. Along the way, Perry famously torched his Black Ark studios and burnished his always wildly checkered reputation with a series of outrageous business stunts. Yet he never lost sight of the one critical, constant thing in his fabulously chaotic life: making great music. Expect nothing less. Also at Santa Monica Pier, Thursday, Aug. 28.
Wed., Aug. 27, 9 p.m., 2014
(Expired: 08/27/14)